Summary of Article

4

Individual Assigned Court Decisions & Summaries

1. Objective

The purpose of summarizing a court decision in Law, Ethics and Policy is two-fold:

(1) To familiarise you with important Canadian decisions that pertain to Law, Ethics and Policy; and

(2) To ensure that you are able to both find and summarise any Canadian court decision(s) on a given legal issue.

2. Finding Canadian case law

You should find a copy of your allocated case by using ‘Canadian Legal Information Institute’, known as CanLII, an internet website that provides legal resources free of costs to the public.

· Go to ‘Google’.

· Enter: http://www.canlii.org or simply CanLII.

· Enter only the names of the parties at option 1: ‘Document text’.

· Names of potential cases will appear: Click on case with correct date.

· Full case will appear.

· You may print and/ or save the case and/or email it as an attachment to yourself.

3. Format and contents of your case summary

· Remember the KISS principle: Keep It Short and Simple.

· Only discuss the indicated key aspects of the case that relates to Law, Ethics and Policy (see below).

· Each your case summary should not be longer than one and a half pages.

· Your summary should address the following four issues:

1. What is the story (facts of case – very briefly)? Summary the position of both parties.

2. What did the court decide? Concentrate on the court’s reasons for the decision.

3. What is the value/importance of this decision to Law, Ethics and Policy (MADS 6644)?

4. Do you agree/disagree with the decision? Motivate your answer.

4. Evaluation

I shall award a grade out of a maximum of 20 marks .

Your case summary will be graded as follows:

· Prep, legal analysis of the court’ decision, knowledge of topic - summary of facts, your own opinion, content of 2 pages (content must be short and to the point):

A. Editing, formatting and presentation of case study – did you follow the instructions below? 5/20

B. Content: 15/20: Facts (5 marks), Court’s ruling (5 marks), Own opinion (5- analysis is key – do you agree, why, why not? Explain in detail)

C. Instructions: Please use Times New Roman or Calibri, 12, 1.5 spacing in your summary. The headings under (B) must be in bold and numbered (1) – (4)

· Indicate the following information on the cover page of your case summary:

1. Name of case and topic in bold and caps (e.g. CARTER CASE – RIGHT TO DIE)

2. Your name

5. Case

1. Anten v Bhalerao

2013 ONCA 499 (CanLII)

Re: Right to refuse treatment (anti-psychotic medication)

7. Summary:

1) Find the prescribed case on www.canlii.ca

2) Write a maximum of 2 pages on your assigned case.

3) Remember: You will be graded on the following: instructions were followed, prep, legal analysis of the court’ decision, summary of facts and your own opinion (must be short and to the point).

Good luck!